Numerous organizations depend on Microsoft Teams for communication and collaboration within both virtual and traditional office dynamics. According to UC Today, 280 million users logged in to Microsoft Teams monthly during Q2 of 2023. If you want to use Teams for more than chat and file-sharing, you can make external voice calls with enterprise Microsoft Teams.
Enterprise Microsoft Teams offers the features you expect from an enterprise-grade cloud-based communications system with the collaborative features of Teams. This blog will explore what enterprise Microsoft Teams is, why it is helpful for businesses, and what advantages it provides. We will also discuss how you can choose an ideal partner to integrate your enterprise Teams solution.
What Is the Microsoft Enterprise Teams Platform?
Microsoft Teams is an application for communication and collaboration. Many organizations already use the business basic or standard version of Teams application as an internal communication, collaboration, and file-sharing platform. It offers video conferencing and team meetings with recording and transcription for up to 300 participants, business email, calls, chat, file sharing, polling, tasks, and cloud storage.
Related: Can Microsoft Teams Make External Calls?
While the business basic or standard version of Microsoft Teams can be enough for some small businesses if you want to support a distributed workforce, Microsoft enterprise solutions can meet your needs. Teams integrates with your Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking or Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) system to provide a robust, scalable, and flexible communication and collaboration solution. You can bring your existing carrier with a Bring-Your-Own-Carrier (BYOC) solution.
Is Enterprise Teams Helpful for Business Communications?
Many companies have adopted Microsoft Teams as a communication solution in a traditional office setting or for the increasingly common remote distributed workforce. According to a survey in Business News Daily, 9 out of 10 workers listed flexibility as the number one benefit a workplace can offer. We expect remote and hybrid opportunities to continue and businesses to rely on solutions like Teams to communicate and collaborate.
Microsoft Enterprise Teams provides a complete voice communications platform. It can be used for making external calls over the public switched telephony networks (PSTNs) and cloud-based voice over SIP trunk or a UCaaS solution. For many businesses, enterprise Microsoft Teams can even replace a traditional private branch exchange (PBX), providing functions like call routing and queuing. It can also be used alongside an existing PBX.
If you already have a SIP provider or want to integrate one into your business communications, enterprise Microsoft Teams can likely work with your existing SIP solution. You’ll have the collaborative features of Teams with the scalable voice service of SIP.
An existing SIP trunk can be connected to Teams, allowing users to make calls using the SIP from within Teams anywhere with an internet connection and provide high-quality calls with call masking to display your business phone number. Integrating Microsoft Teams into your new SIP solution is easy when you choose a communications provider with experience in SIP and Teams.
Enterprise Microsoft Teams can also be integrated into a new or existing UCaaS solution. Your users can enjoy the collaborative features of Teams, along with the reliability, scalability, and flexibility that UCaaS offers. Users can make external calls from Teams using the organizations’ UCaaS.
Related: Can Microsoft Teams Replace Your Phone System?
What Are the Advantages of Enterprise-Level Teams?
Enterprises are discovering immense value in Microsoft Teams, as it becomes a game-changer in their digital ecosystems. By meshing the interactive capabilities of Teams with the robustness, scalability, and on-the-go access of a high-tier SIP or UCaaS voice network, it provides a powerhouse of productivity. But that’s not all. It also introduces a suite of functionalities aimed to propel business growth, along with the freedom deploy at a pace that aligns with your specific requirements. Here’s an exploration into some of the compelling benefits of deploying Microsoft Teams at the enterprise level.
Scalability
Enterprise Microsoft Teams combined with a cloud-based SIP or UCaaS solution can offer the scalability your company needs. The number of inbound connections can increase depending on the number of callers without adding new equipment or infrastructure. Administrators can also add new users and phone numbers from a web portal. With the right SIP or UCaaS provider and a flexible pricing plan, your company will only pay for the SIP trunk channels or the minutes you need each month.
Reliability
Enterprise Microsoft Teams can provide reliability when your SIP or voice provider has 24/7 uptime and over 99.99% reliability. Since your company’s voice and Teams platforms are in the cloud, it offers consistent reliability worldwide and can provide physical failover to another network with the right provider.
Microsoft Teams could also provide business continuity. Since the voice and Teams services are hosted in the cloud, users can continue making and accepting calls or using chat in teams regardless of location. There is no need for an on-site system; users only require a mobile phone or softphone on a PC or laptop to make calls from a stable internet connection. Users can still use the voice and Teams services if their physical office location needs to close or the network is down. A SIP provider with a focus on Teams may also have additional features to enhance the reliability of a cloud based PBX such as Microsoft Teams.
Mobility
With more organizations adopting a remote or hybrid workplace, Teams offers a solution for mobile users. Your users can connect to the platform and use the voice or SIP solution from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. With complete voice communication and the collaborative platform, remote workers can benefit from Enterprise Microsoft Teams without needing to be on-site to access a traditional business phone system.
Migrate at Your Own Pace
With Microsoft enterprise, your company can migrate to their new UCaaS or SIP or use an existing solution with Teams. You can also configure external calling with Teams, SIP, or UCaaS for select users or departments. When you work with a platform with UCaaS and Microsoft Teams expertise, you’ll be guided through the challenges to meet your goals, budget, and timeline.
Business Enhancing Features
Enterprise Microsoft Teams offers the benefits of the standard Teams versions and business-enhancing features. It provides all the expected features in an enterprise-grade business phone system. You’ll get the following features:
- Business intelligence
- Messaging
- Collaboration management
- Integrated call center
- Telephony extensions
- SIP trunk sharing and linking
- Cloud calling
- Hoteling
- Call queuing
- Advanced call routing
- Auto-attendants
- Paging devices
- E911 management
- Hunt groups
- Call transferring
How to Choose the Right Teams Partner
Choosing a partner for your Microsoft enterprise solution is critical to getting the benefits you need from Teams and your SIP or UCaaS solution. Teams can help your business users collaborate, communicate, and make external calls at a lower cost than traditional PSTN solutions. The scalability, reliability, and business phone system features you get from combining it with your SIP or UCaaS solution can support a remote or hybrid office arrangement.
When you work with a Microsoft Gold Partner, you’ll get the support to ensure your devices are compatible and your users can access all the necessary features. Your partner will also ensure your Teams solution has greater reliability and 24/7 uptime.
Cost can also be a crucial consideration; while some UCaaS and SIP providers offer service at a flat rate, when you pay a monthly rate for each SIP trunk, you know exactly how much you will need to pay each month, and you only pay for what you need right now. When you need to scale up or down, the pricing changes accordingly.
Enhance Your Business With Enterprise Microsoft Teams
Whether you already have a SIP or UCaaS solution for your voice calling, want to make calls from Microsoft Teams, or need a complete cloud communication solution with Teams, an enterprise-level Microsoft Teams solution can meet your needs. You can connect remote and hybrid workforces with consistent reliability and scalability from a cloud-based communications partner with Teams.
Enterprise Microsoft Teams from BCM One is a voice-enabled Teams platform that builds upon the chat, file sharing, and video conferencing offered in Teams. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we can ensure that your devices, like desk phones, are compatible with enterprise Microsoft Teams and that your SIP trunk or UCaaS is configured to deliver the expected service.
We can help you migrate to Teams at your own pace and provide flexible options to ensure only the callers you want to use the platform for external calling can. BCM One offers UCaaS and SIP trunking with Teams on a fast and reliable cloud-based network with carrier-grade reliability. Contact us to integrate your Microsoft enterprise solution into your business communications seamlessly.